What is the clinical evidence from this study?

Study design: Observational. Population: Myocardial fibrosis (n=15). Intervention: Age ≥ 60 years vs. Age < 60 years. Primary outcome: Interstitial fibrosis (mean area fraction %) (p=0.004).

What question did this study set out to answer?

The study aims to assess the extent of myocardial fibrosis in cadaveric hearts using Masson's trichrome staining.

April 4, 2026Open Access

Histological evaluation of myocardial fibrosis in cadaveric hearts: a Masson’s trichrome-based pilot study of the left anterior descending artery region

Q: What are the key findings of this study?

Cadaveric hearts aged 60 years and older demonstrated significantly higher interstitial fibrosis (21.1% vs 15.6%) and perivascular fibrosis (14.9% vs 10.3%) compared to younger hearts.

Q: What question did this study set out to answer?

The study aims to assess the extent of myocardial fibrosis in cadaveric hearts using Masson's trichrome staining.

Key Result

Cadaveric hearts aged 60 years and older demonstrated significantly higher interstitial fibrosis (21.1% vs 15.6%) and perivascular fibrosis (14.9% vs 10.3%) compared to younger hearts.

Key Points

The study aims to assess the extent of myocardial fibrosis in cadaveric hearts using Masson's trichrome staining.
Utilized masson's trichrome staining on cadaveric heart tissue.
Examined fibrosis in the left anterior descending artery region.
Compared fibrosis levels across different age groups.
Identified both interstitial and perivascular fibrosis in heart tissues.
Fibrosis was more extensive in older age groups.
Perivascular fibrosis was more pronounced around intramural vessels.

Study Design

Type

Observational

Structured PICO

Population

15 adult cadaveric hearts (9 male, 6 female). Inclusion: adequately preserved in formalin without gross autolysis. Exclusion: severely decomposed, traumatically damaged, or surgically manipulated hearts.

Intervention

Histological evaluation of myocardial tissue blocks near the left anterior descending (LAD) artery using Masson's trichrome staining and ImageJ quantification.

Outcome

Percentage of collagen-positive area relative to the total myocardial tissue area (interstitial and perivascular fibrosis measured separately).surrogate

Histological analysis of cadaveric hearts demonstrates that myocardial interstitial and perivascular fibrosis can be reliably quantified and are significantly more extensive in older individuals.

Limitations

Analysis was based on digital photographs of specific fields rather than full slides, which could result in overestimation or underestimation
Limited sample size (n = 15)
Semi-automated method is susceptible to intra- and inter-observer variability

Abstract

Masson's trichrome staining of cadaver hearts is a valuable tool for demonstrating the extent of myocardial fibrosis. Both interstitial and perivascular fibrosis were demonstrated, and these were more extensive in the older age groups and more pronounced around intramural vessels, highlighting the role of microvascular changes in heart disease. This work shows that using cadaveric tissue models to quantify myocardial fibrosis is practical and can aid anatomical and pathological research.

Connected Papers

Building similarity graph...

Analyzing shared references across papers

Discussion

Authors

Apurba Patra

Gargi Kapatia

Priti Chaudhary

Journals

Folia Morphologica

Actions

Institutions

Jagiellonian University

All India Institute of Medical Sciences

Central University of Punjab

References and Citations

Connected Papers

Building similarity graph...

Analyzing shared references across papers

Histological evaluation of myocardial fibrosis in cadaveric hearts: a Masson’s trichrome-based pilot study of the left anterior descending artery region

Key Result

Key Points

Study Design

Structured PICO

Limitations

Abstract

Citation Network

Connected Papers

Discussion

Authors

Journals

Actions

Institutions

References and Citations

Citation Network

Connected Papers

Discussion

Cite this study